Max Payne: Inner Circle Ashes
by MikeJones86
Summary: Inner circle ashes' Takes place three weeks after the events of Rockstar's game 'The Fall of Max Payne' It is a work in progress and new chapter bunches will be released each week. Thanks guys hope you enjoy.
1. Max Payne: Inner Circle Ashes Part I

**Max Payne**: Inner Circle Ashes.

A Short Unofficial Sequel to 'The Fall of Max Payne'

By Michael Jones

Prologue

I woke up again to see a familiar sight, a fluorescent light glowing and sending white and blue streaks of light across the cream white ceiling, the hospital. A moment of confusion flushed through my mind like the brain pain of a slushy drink. Questions pushed against the fading sting of amnesia; and then it all came flooding back, Vladimir, Woden, the Inner Circle, Mona's blood soaked embrace, sirens and blinding blue and red flashes across the walls of the Woden mansion. I could still recall her warm breath on my ear as I clutched her dieing body. Mona didn't deserve to die, and it was a fact that I was partly to blame. She'd given up her life to save someone like me, Max Payne, someone who placed plan and execution far above life itself. Was my mission over? Was I still alive for a reason?

Chapter One

**HIGH AND DRY**

**Three Weeks Later…**

A glass of Jack twitched in my hand as I sat in my new and very dank apartment, a simple little loft with a very nice view of the decrepit porno theater across the road, coupled with the blinding flashes of Neon XXX, nice and wholesome. I still had the shakes, allot of advice had been thrown my way by my department, Leave the DEA, leave New York, leave the planet. Dieing seemed like good advice right now,

But something felt unresolved, I'd killed thousands of hoodlums, Valkeri dealers and government spooks and yet, regardless, it was only a portion of the monster that was New York's underworld. I looked at my tiny flickering television, the weather woman pointed at a giant cold front that was heading in from the east. Winter had returned. Like I had picked the words right out of Gods mouth, flakes of snow began to fall outside, sparkling in the pale streetlight. This winter was going to be colder than ever before. I took another sip of Jack, my head buzzing and my vision swirling as I pulled out a cigarette and lit it, self destruction seem the only logical thing left. I looked over at the liquor Cabinet and my empty packet of cigarettes; it was time for a walk.

I stumbled clumsily out of my apartment building, and out onto the eerie quiet of my remote Brooklyn address, my vision spun and the night was young, plans for filling my liquor cabinet had faded, I was looking for trouble now. I strolled up the street, on my way to Hammersmith Ave, a busy stretch. Occasionally I would look up and watch the otherwise invisible snow enter the beam of the streetlight, and it was beautiful, I found that every so often, such happy thoughts would stroll through my otherwise morose mind, they where good while they lasted, but all but disappeared when I saw what was under the next streetlight. A gangly hooker sat on her hip and looked my way. The street was more populated now, New York's lonely men where out fishing for the creatures of the night. The hooker threw me a false smile, her mascara was running, highlighting a large bruise on her left eye; it was obvious she had been crying not too long ago. "Hey Baby, wanna have some fun?" her thick Brooklyn drawl impossible to miss. I looked past her as I staggered by; across the street I could see a dark car and the glowing ember of a cigarette, her pimp. I would have taken her up on her offer if she where simply offering company and not her body. It seemed like every woman I saw now reminded me of Michelle, Mona, and Detective Winterson... women had a bad habit of dying around me. It would have seemed a good idea to get her away from that piece of scum for a few hours, but some things are best left alone. I could relate to her though, both our worlds where cruel, just in different ways. An idea struck me; my brain was on coffee break and my heart, a workaholic. I strolled across the street toward the darkened car. There was no going back now.

Chapter Two

**SHADOWMAN**

The air was getting cold, the snow crunched under my footsteps. It was fresh snow and yet already is seemed to be turning a deep coal pit grey. The figure in the car didn't seem to even flinch as I approached; the cigarette ember glowed, revealing, for a split second, a gaunt face with two cold, beady eyes. I pulled the burning cigarette from my lips and threw it on the bonnet of the car, smiling smugly. It was like I was trapped in my own body, observing my own stupidity, the smart thing to do would be to turn around and be on my way. I expected the figure to shift or move in some way or even better, give me an excuse to beat his ass, but he was unflinching, he just kept sucking on his cigarette, watching from the dark. I felt like a moron, Max Payne, the drunkard swaying savior of dried up, no hope hookers, some things would never change.

In the awkwardness of the moment, I began to shuffle away from the car, feeling foolish and useless. I looked over at the hooker who was watching from afar, her suggestive smile had turned into shocked bewilderment, I couldn't really blame her, I found most of my actions confusing too. I continued to walk up the street, my hands dived deep into my pockets, the cold was really starting to get to me now, I needed to get to the corner store.

I trudged back down the street carrying a paper bag of oddly sensible necessities, toothpaste, some fruit and some insensible ones like Cigarettes and liquor. Was I starting to care about myself a little bit again? Or was the Jack making me nostalgic? maybe I should drink a bit more. The snowfall was thick now, coming down in large flakes, there was already allot of snowfall back up on the street curb. Empty faces looked up as me as I walked by. Everyone I saw reminded me of the past, someone who had met a sticky end from the other side of my berretta. I had spent so much time in the snow last winter in my vendetta; it had almost become a friend in itself, the cold wind whispering the voices of the dead. I trudged passed a dark alleyway and my instincts flared, I had sobered up slightly on my walk. I heard a sound coming from the alley a faint and grieved voice.

My body was moving at command of my impelling heart again, logic would have to sit this one out and watch.

Chapter Three

**INVISABLE EYES**

The Alley way was a boring cliché of what an alley should look like in Brooklyn. Rubbish littered the ground, large metal dumper bins where lined up against a ragged and rusted metal fence, which beyond, extended to an overused asphalt basketball court, slash, car park. The whimpering came from a dark corner of the car park. I climbed through a hole in the fence and walked steadily through the area, the hair on the back of my neck was standing up, something was very wrong here, my instincts where reacting to something. I felt eyes watching me, voices whispering, the devils army was watching and waiting, and I wasn't armed.

I walked through the eerie basketball court, between some dividers and entered the car park. Around the corner I saw a dark car with its brake and head lights switched on shining against the far wall revealing a grisly sight. A body lay propped up against the wall, a victim of repeated gunshot wounds, whose familiarity was unmistakable. The hooker I had passed in the street, the gaunt brunette, with the black eye and running mascara. I grimace, why was always blessed with discovering the sowed seeds of greed. I looked in the driver's side of the cab, a rather fruitless attempt to discover answers to the question that where always asked at a homicide. As I reached into my pocket for my cell phone, I had a revelation as I looked at the car, how could I have not even considered it. A sharp pain covered the back of my head and I was leveled to my knees. I fell down on my face, flakes of broken asphalt cutting my face. A figure turned my body over to look at the grey winter hell of above, it was the figure from the car. His gaunt face stared at me, my vision a kaleidoscope from the head trauma, his face was uncharacteristically menacing. "Are you listening Payne" he said, "I speak for the new face of the Valkyr Empire, the new boss doesn't like you, he doesn't like what you have achieved, he doesn't like what you're capable of." His eyes shifted up to the corpse not far from us.

"But he is fair"… "My boss wants you to go along with the plans we have for you" his eyes gleamed back me… "However, some incentive has been requested at my boss's behest" he pulled out a large injecting gun and pressed it against my tensed neck, "Sweet, dreams former DEA Max Payne" The gun sparked, my body shook… and the pail face in front of me disappeared into the darkness. The nightmare of the Valkyr drug began to take hold as I rolled around on the ground struggling to fight it. It was useless, the hallucinations had started, and I was slipping into the darkness of my mind.

Chapter Four

**THE RABBIT HOLE**

Coming Soon

11/5/09


	2. Max Payne: Inner Circle Ashes Part II

Chapter Four

**THE RABBIT HOLE**

The first thing I saw was blackness, then a shimmering of warped colors. I was in a candle lit hallway, my vision that of a fish eye lense, warping into the distance. I could see a door at the end of the hall and a small trickle of blood that led up to it, that is when the baby started crying, my young daughter, I had been to this dark place before. I began to run up the hallway to my daughter's aid, but her screaming was moving further away from me. I couldn't seem to run fast enough, everything was in slow-motion, my heart beating loudly and in drawn out, balanced beats. My sprinting inched me closer to the door, until finally my hand reached out for the doorknob.

The door clicked open and orange light spewed from it. The living room of my old American Dream house lay before me, afternoon orange sun beaming from the windows, filling the room with foreboding shadows. A familiar time and place, etched in my mind forever, haunting me. I ran through the living room, coffee table and chairs turned on their side...chaos. Screaming echoed from the upstairs bedroom, my wife's horrific demise repeating over and over in a relentless limbo. My body moved without my command, running up the stairs, to my old bedroom...But the stairs kept going up and up, this was not my old house. The stairs disappeared, I was walking up into blackness, following a trickle of blood below my feet, my baby girl continued to cry echoing through the black. It was then that I came upon a metal briefcase on the invisible floor, its reflective steel exterior smeared with bloody hand prints, as though a wounded someone had desperately tried to pry it open. I placed my finger on the latch and flicked it open with ease. There was an unexpected sight inside the case; a dead crow laid there, its ragged wings splayed out as though on display and held in its beak something sparkled. My beloved Michelle's engagement ring, Michelle's screaming started again as the invisible floor gave way and I started falling into the darkness, the screams where deafening and un-ending.

I awoke in the dark car park where the nightmare had started, the stranger's car was gone, but the poor woman's body remained, staring at me from the shadows. I could feel something in my hand, something cold, textured and wet. My hands where covered in blood, and in my right hand I was holding a berretta, cover in bloodied fingerprints. Sirens wailed in the distance, everything clicked with cold, hard precision... I had been framed.

Chapter Five

**RED HANDS**

I didn't have much time to think. The snow was falling thick and fast, the huge amount of snow that had built up around me suggested I had been out of it for hours, Valkyr had taken its toll on my body, my head ached and my soul felt trampled, memories I'd prefer forgotten. I stood up looking at the blood stained gun; I had no choice but to run, take the gun and dispose of it later. I headed towards Hammersmith Ave, taking back alleys. I passed an old pawn shop, my attention being caught by what was flickering on the old television in the window.I looked through the steel security screen, not believing what I saw. Words slid sideways on the CNN newsreel, with a picture of my big ugly mug.

"_**LAST YEARS HERO COP MAX PAYNE SOUGHT FOR QUESTIONING IN RELATION TO MURDER"**_

I could hear the female news reader chirping faintly in the background.

"_Max Payne, the famed NYPD Detective who single handedly brought down the multi-billion dollar drug ring linked to the __Aesir_ _Corporation two years ago, is wanted for questioning by the police in relation to a homicide in Brooklyn"_

"_Payne received honors for his work in exposing __Aesir_ _Pharmaceuticals CEO Nicole Horne and her involvement, but was recently suspended from the NYPD pending inquiry, following the death of New York senator Alfred Woden and his possible involvement in the Valkyr scandal"_

I couldn't believe my eyes, whoever the new face of Valkyr was, he, she or it was high up and well connected. Tipping off the police and media before even discovering a crime scene was power you couldn't buy. I couldn't go back to my apartment; it would be crawling with New York's finest by now. My attacker hadn't planned on me having a photographic memory, I tried to make out the plates of the strangers mystery car. BJN…762. Walking down a quiet street, I entered a phone booth and dialled the number for my department.

Chapter Six

**CONNECTIONS **

The line rang for a moment and a mature female voice answered the line, Doris, she'd transferred in from Atlanta a year ago, God knows why. "Hello, Roscoe Police Station" she said in a blasé tone. "Hi, I'm after Detective Jack Larsson."… "No problem, may I ask who is speaking?" I paused. "This is Joe…his brother." There was another awkward pause. "Won't be a moment" the line crackled and started to ring over. Jack was a friend, I had known him only a Month and yet it was like he we had know each other for life, he was down to earth and trustworthy, I hoped.

"Hello, this is Jack." "Hello Jack"…There was a long pause. "Is that you Max?" he whispered. "No" I said in nervous amusement "This is not Max, and this person who is not Max needs a favour." I heard frantic shuffling in the background of the line and then a door click shut. "What have you gotten yourself into this week? You realise the cops are going ape shit looking for you." "Yeah, it's been an interesting night, listen." It seemed like a ridiculous statement. "I think I'm being framed, I can't explain now, but I need you to run some plates for me and fast" I pulled some painkillers out of my pocket and downed three tablets as I talked. "I realise this puts you in an awkward spot, but I swear I've got nothing to do with whatever you've heard"… I could hear the phone line clicking in the background, I was being traced. "Well, why don't you come in and we can talk this through before you do something stupid"… "I don't do stupid things Jack, stupid things do me, goodbye Jack." I had given him twenty five seconds of the thirty seconds he needed. I couldn't blame him, he had a job to do, but winding up in a cramped interrogation room with a cup of bad coffee wasn't really my priority right now.

I deliberated wether to stay in the phone booth or not, it was much warmer than the freezing cold outside. But the decision was made for me when a squad car turned into the street, shining a mounted spotlight around. I ducked into an alley way as I watched the car slide to a halt out the front of a 24/7 diner. Bingo, I suddenly had a very stupid idea.

I discreetly opened the squad cars front door and lay across the passenger seat to access the on board computer, I typed in the plates and made a mental note of the important details, or what there was of it.

**NAME: ****ODIN STEALWORKS**

**AD****DRESS: 1211 VINELAND DR**

**TREMONT, NEW YORK****11233**

Sloppy cops, leaving their car unlocked, I wasn't complaining. I left the door of the squad car open as I went, maybe I liked the fact that the two beat cops would sweat a little when they returned to find their car in a state of attempted ransack, so sue me, I had a sick sense of humour. I ran down some steps and into the dimly lit subway. I didn't have a name to go by, but I had a place, Tremont was next on my list.

Chapter Seven

**OLD TIES**

Coming Soon

20/5/09


End file.
